Samsung Family Hub

A Google user

5 years ago

I bought this refrigerator just for the Smart Hub and it doesn't work anymore. It used to work but now when I try to open the app it just closes. I have a Samsung phone, it seems it would work with a Samsung fridge! It works on my daughter-in-law's phone, which is the exact same as mine, but not mine. So frustrating to spend so much money and waste so much time having to reconfigure every few weeks and now not have it work at all. :( I was SO excited for this fridge!

B.K. Maginnis

4 years ago

Pretty terrible. App was obviously made by interns. For example, trying to upload a photo for the fridge cover page. Its not to scale of a normal photo and no editing in the app so I either have to edit it to make it work or have cut off heads all the time. Yes, it can be done but shouldn't it be about convenience rather than trying to figure out a workaround for fridge photo? Terrible. F-

Maia Brown

3 years ago

They just pushed a new update 4/13/2022 that has made the hub completely useless. It keeps going to different screens on its own & won't allow you to put it back to your personal settings for more than a few minutes before it puts it back to the factory setting. It seems like someone has hacked into it & is operating it remotely. I would advise you from updating it! I wish we had known that it was set on automatic updates. I hope they push an update to put it back to the previous version!

David Baltz

4 years ago

UPDATE $2000 "smart" fridge with an app that doesn't even support Android 10 despite the fact were on Android 11. Catch up, Samsung. UPDATE: After 4 months, app still force closes on launch. No change despite promises from developer. Wish I could put a photo on my fridge without using a magnet, which I assume is half the purpose of this app. Then again, I wouldn't know... Since I still can't even launch it.

Kimberly Fortney

4 years ago

The concept of the Family Hub is practical and useful. My husband and I have both synced our Google calendars on the hub and we loving this. The shopping list is very frustrating. I hope Samsung spends more money on future development of that feature. Again in concept it sounds wonderful but in trying to use the grocery list feature it's challenging. We would like to see other apps available for download to the Family Hub, such as the NEST, Microsoft To Do List and others. This a very expensive refrigerator and the Family Hub is a big selling point - please continue to invest in the feature.

Justin Girdler

5 years ago

This app meets the basic needs. It upload the photos, keeps the to-do lists current, and helps facilitatale the whole family HUB experience. I would like to see more updates in the shopping list and food list areas: it is what we spend 90% of the app doing day to day. The interface is simple, but the options are lacking. Example, I can add ketchup to my shopping list, but if I put "Spicy ketchup" it doesn't know what to do. I'd like to see them add suggested categories, similar to Bring!'s app

Catherine Sauer

4 years ago

Useful...but unreliable. This app is required to integrate with Samsung appliances, but frequently the applies are unable to sync and the usefulness of the app is lost. An example is using the shopping list, where updates are made on either device or fridge, and the list doesnt sync to the account and transfer. The best work around? Uninstall and reinstall. The reliability of an app to a captive audience of users says a lot about how the company values their customers.

Christopher Searles

4 years ago

Disappointing, in a word. I'm generally a big Samsung fan and when it came time to buy a new fridge, I looked at a lot of reviews of the Family Hub to see if the tech had gotten to a point to make it worth the extra money. I liked what I saw in reviews and it seems like Samsung was/is convinced this type of connectivity is the future so they'd be committed to making it successful and useful, but I haven't quite seen that yet. The idea of needing to mirror a screen to watch media content feels like 20 year old tech (like when I used to tether my laptop to my tube TV with an S-Video cable). It renders both devices almost useless. I can't turn off a screen I don't want to watch, I can't use it to do something while someone else watches the TV on the screen, and I can't use any of the functionality on the fridge itself without disconnecting, doing what I want on the screen, getting the other device, reconnecting, etc.) I don't understand the lack of native apps for YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and really any other streaming video service. I also figured, ok, well there's an internet browser so I can just login to my accounts, bookmark those websites, and stream that way. Nope! No video streaming supported in the native web browser. I also can't uninstall useless apps like Shop-Rite (there isn't one within 30 miles of me and I don't shop there, I don't need the app). Getting pictures on the screen should be as easy as a Google Photos integration but no, you have to open the app and manually choose pictures and videos to upload (a process that takes a decent amount of time on a high-speed local network). The built-in refrigerator management features are weak at best, and bad enough that they take so long to use they're not useful. The only thing the image recognition engine has recognized correctly so far are eggs, otherwise nothing has even been close, and makes it more difficult to use the app, not less, b/c I spend all of my time deleting the suggestions. Sending items to your shopping list sounds like a nice feature until you have to long press the item, send it to your list, pick the list, hit ok, long press the item, delete it, confirm the deletion ... sounds like a trivial thing but doing that when you've used up 4-5 items during a meal is far more time consuming than it's worth, especially since the fridge doesn't actually recognize that something is no longer there and suggests it to be removed. There's also no ability to add a quantity on any of the items you add. So something as simple as 6 yogurts takes 5-10 minutes to add and remove from the system, instead of scanning one and being able to input a number or hit a + or - icon. And no integrations with some of the biggest players in smart home tech is just silly at this point. Google Nest, Sonos ... how is it possible these aren't at the top of the list here? Then I found out today Samsung only releases updates to the onboard apps 4-5 times / year? Honestly, I could go on and on but it seems like a decent project manager should be on top of all of this and then some. Highly disappointed, I expected so much better.

A Google user

5 years ago

Worked fine when I got the fridge 2 months ago, but after a few weeks, I keep getting kicked out of the app with the the failed to connect to fridge notice. I've uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times, and it still will not work. Im using a Samsung phone. This is crazy. All these people saying the same things about the same problem and it hasn't been fixed. I won't be submitting a detailed explanation elsewhere because it's the same as everyone else. Please fix your app!!

A Google user

5 years ago

I will never buy a Samsung "smart" device again. This app was unavailable for the latest version of Android for 9+ months, and now it fails with "unable to register fridge" every time I use it, and in the rate case it works, it shows glitched and broken images from inside the fridge, often days old and not the most recent. Edit: I have contacted them dozens of times, most departments don't even know what "family hub" is, and they will spend weeks giving you the run around. Avoid this at all cost

A Google user

6 years ago

Absolutely the worst, most user unfriendly app I have ever seen. I am a senior software developer and have given up on getting this thing to work after countless hours of futile effort and frustration. Uninstall and reinstall repeatedly and reconnect to fridge. It still won't upload photos, even though it says "photos uploaded". This is a piece of garbage and horrible waste of money on expensive technology that doesn't work.

A Google user

5 years ago

This app constantly "Fails to register" my fridge and won't even let me open the app to try to re-log in or refresh. I have to uninstall and reinstall on my Android phone at least once a week to keep connected. It has failed multiple times when I've been out trying to access my shopping list. I love my fridge but the app is extremely unreliable. It's a good tool when it actually works but if you can't use it when you need it, it's useless.

A Google user

5 years ago

The connection between. my fridge and my phone keeps going offline. I've updated both, reinstalled the app but they still wont communicate in order for me to access my shopping list..ect. it has been this way since the update and I'm getting frustrated having to uninstall and reinstall over and over in an effort to get them connected. worked perfectly before the update.

Keith Baumgart

4 years ago

This app was fine. It let me sync my shopping list between the fridge and my phone and my wife's phone. I could upload photos and some video (wasn't quite clear as to what file type the fridge accepted)... And then Samsung sent an update for the fridge and stated they are going to shut down this app and we have to use SmartThings Several problems with this. First, it's now a multi step process in order to get to a shopping list. My wife and I keep different shopping lists depending on the store. Previously, on Family Hub there was a page arrow to switch between them, now there's a whole menu to go through to change lists. Many of the other settings aren't available in SmartThings. It's difficult since SmartThings works well for other devices, so it's a bit unfair to blame that app for Samsung's bad decision. I'd probably have given this app 4 stars as it stood, SmartThings 4 as well but this decision to discontinue this app is certainly 1 star. It's just a bad update with bad consequences that create pain points for users.

Robert Waring

4 years ago

Without this app, I can no longer use the shipping list. It did not show up on my phone in smartthings. Most other apps and features I don't use because they have been removed over time and got tired of switching to whatever new temporary garbage you replace it with. I wasn't ask that impressed with the refrigerator when I initially purchased it, but I really wish I would have didn't less and got something better. So disgusting with samsung, I want to get rid of all their products.

Rimesh Patel

1 year ago

Frustrating and non-functional at most times. To make matters worse, Samsung has discontinued this app and replaced it with Samsung Smart Things. The problem is the Smart Things interface drops so many of the features of this app. Dropped functionality includes having multiple profiles, animated wallpapers, Voice ID, Memo, Whiteboard, To-do, and Calendar features. Why did I buy this $4000 "smart" fridge again????

Mel Doner

1 year ago

UPDATE...I am thrilled to report the app is once again functional and everyones calendars can be seen on the fridge. The most useful function for a busy family! Have one of the original family hub refrigerators, was pleased because the calendar syncing was particularly useful in a family of conflicting schedules. Now you have made the app extinct and replaced it with a useless smart things app. Really makes me mad.